The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to manipulate user interfaces.
Exemplary hierarchical user interfaces include user interfaces representing: a file hierarchy in a file management program (e.g., Finder from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), an event or timeline hierarchy in an image management application (e.g., Aperture or iPhoto from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a metadata hierarchy (e.g., genres, artists, albums and songs for music) in digital content management application (e.g., iTunes from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a device settings hierarchy in an operating system (e.g., Mac OS X or iOS from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), etc.
But existing methods for navigating through hierarchical user interfaces are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, using a sequence of mouse-based inputs to display a view of a lower level of a hierarchy and ceasing to display a view of the top level of the hierarchy as soon as the view of the lower level of the hierarchy is displayed or continuing to display the view of the top level of the hierarchy while the view of the lower level of the hierarchy is in a content modification mode creates a significant cognitive burden on a user and increases the likelihood of unintentional inputs. In addition, existing methods of navigating through hierarchical user interfaces take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.